kgingerich
Member
Disclaimer - I've never done some of this stuff before so if you see me doing something wrong please tell me. I'm an IT guy by trade so pulling wires has been the only part I'm really comfortable with in this project. The rest of the knowledge comes from you fine folks and other forums.
The equipment:
Lighting control via UPB Gen II
Video dist. via Audio Authority Avatrix
Whole house audio via 3 Russound CAV6.6's
Intercom via Russound Compoint using 19 ISK2 keypads
Rain8Net for irrigation control
Proliphix IP Thermostats controlling 4 zones
Security via ELK M1G
8 PTZ vid cameras (make/model to be determined)
Sentrol glass breaks
Bosch blue light motion sensors
G.R.I. 2800 water sensors under all sinks/tubs/washing machine/hot water heater
ELK-WSV main water shutoff
And mainlobby to control it all.
Wiring used:
Genesis Model #11031309 22/4 for security contacts
Genesis Model #50922206 Cat6 for data
Belden Model #1700A DataTwist Cat5e for all non Data connections (video distro.)
Belden Model #1694A RG6 QS Coax for everything.
Image of the new home from this summer.
Side Yard with the kiddos tooling around on the 4wheeler
Back Yard
Image of some of the wires coming from the attic on the second floor through the top plate of the first floor heading to the termination location in the basement. I bought some wood screw in style wire rings that I was really happy with. I just screwed them on every few studs and it made for a clean look and easy to pull lots of wire through.
Here is a poor quality image taken with my cell phone (sorry) of all the wires just hanging out in the basement.
324 total wires that need to be terminated.
Another cell phone image of the wires dropping out of the ceiling. Note the two 2 inch PVC conduits capped off that run into the attic for future runs.
Image of the first of 4 Channelvision 50" cans being installed for termination of security system contacts and telephone wires. I got the idea from Dan and DJK to use 66 blocks, barrier strips, and wire ducts all mounted on a 1/2" sheet of plywood painted white. I finished punching it down last night but forgot to get a picture of it. I'll update it later. Thank you both for your idea... it's worked out awesome.
EDIT- Updated images
Updated image of ELK Security system. ELK Power supplies on far left, middle 50" enclosure for all ELK equipment and right 50" enclosure for terminations of all security system wires.
Updated image of the coax termination enclosure. Bottom coax with power strips are for my video security camera feeds.
Updated image of enclosure for all CAT5E and CAT6 wires. Cat6 for data and the 5e was for all the video routing (i.e. avatrix system) as well as various other things (thermostats, IR routing, etc...)
The white wires you see dangling are speaker wires for the whole house audio system. I"m going to terminate them directly into the equipment on the rack when i get the ladder racking and server racks in place.
All the enclosures with the doors shut. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Yipee!!
That's it for right now... I'll be finishing the other cans in a few weeks and will begin the intercom and whole house audio installs soon.
Some notes that may or may not help anyone:
1) cable in a box generally sucks. Obviously this depends on the manufacturer but most of them come out and want to kink and you have to spend a lot of time fixing kinks inside the box that keep the wire from coming out. Cable on a roll tends to work much better. Cable on a roll inside a box is an awesome idea as long as the delivery man doesn't drop kick it on the way to your house causing the plastic parts inside to break. Always check those boxes upon delivery and return if they're broken.
2) the wood rings work awesome in new construction. something like these.
3) Spend a lot of time figuring out each run before hand because running one extra wire because you forgot it is a huge waste of time.
4) Label the wires however you want but I'd recommend putting an identifier in front of your numbering scheme on the wires. What I mean is "WS 1,2,3,etc.." for water sensor and "SC 1,2,3,etc.." for security contacts. This way you can easily group wires together at the termination point without having to lookup each number identifier. It'll make termination a little easier I think.
5) Obviously take a lot of photos and videos before drywall!
6) Electricians generally don't understand low voltage interference concerns so if you care about it at all then do your LV wire pulling AFTER the electricians so you can work around their stuff. I did mine during electrical so I kept having to go back and move my wires after I'd notice a 3" HV sub panel line running next to a huge group of CAT6 cables. That's not good!
7) If you have several coax cables going to one location like a plasma above the fireplace; i found it easier to purchase several different colors of coax so it's easy to identify which cable goes where.
That's it for now, i'll update as much as possible during my journey.
The equipment:
Lighting control via UPB Gen II
Video dist. via Audio Authority Avatrix
Whole house audio via 3 Russound CAV6.6's
Intercom via Russound Compoint using 19 ISK2 keypads
Rain8Net for irrigation control
Proliphix IP Thermostats controlling 4 zones
Security via ELK M1G
8 PTZ vid cameras (make/model to be determined)
Sentrol glass breaks
Bosch blue light motion sensors
G.R.I. 2800 water sensors under all sinks/tubs/washing machine/hot water heater
ELK-WSV main water shutoff
And mainlobby to control it all.
Wiring used:
Genesis Model #11031309 22/4 for security contacts
Genesis Model #50922206 Cat6 for data
Belden Model #1700A DataTwist Cat5e for all non Data connections (video distro.)
Belden Model #1694A RG6 QS Coax for everything.
Image of the new home from this summer.
Side Yard with the kiddos tooling around on the 4wheeler
Back Yard
Image of some of the wires coming from the attic on the second floor through the top plate of the first floor heading to the termination location in the basement. I bought some wood screw in style wire rings that I was really happy with. I just screwed them on every few studs and it made for a clean look and easy to pull lots of wire through.
Here is a poor quality image taken with my cell phone (sorry) of all the wires just hanging out in the basement.
324 total wires that need to be terminated.
Another cell phone image of the wires dropping out of the ceiling. Note the two 2 inch PVC conduits capped off that run into the attic for future runs.
Image of the first of 4 Channelvision 50" cans being installed for termination of security system contacts and telephone wires. I got the idea from Dan and DJK to use 66 blocks, barrier strips, and wire ducts all mounted on a 1/2" sheet of plywood painted white. I finished punching it down last night but forgot to get a picture of it. I'll update it later. Thank you both for your idea... it's worked out awesome.
EDIT- Updated images
Updated image of ELK Security system. ELK Power supplies on far left, middle 50" enclosure for all ELK equipment and right 50" enclosure for terminations of all security system wires.
Updated image of the coax termination enclosure. Bottom coax with power strips are for my video security camera feeds.
Updated image of enclosure for all CAT5E and CAT6 wires. Cat6 for data and the 5e was for all the video routing (i.e. avatrix system) as well as various other things (thermostats, IR routing, etc...)
The white wires you see dangling are speaker wires for the whole house audio system. I"m going to terminate them directly into the equipment on the rack when i get the ladder racking and server racks in place.
All the enclosures with the doors shut. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Yipee!!
That's it for right now... I'll be finishing the other cans in a few weeks and will begin the intercom and whole house audio installs soon.
Some notes that may or may not help anyone:
1) cable in a box generally sucks. Obviously this depends on the manufacturer but most of them come out and want to kink and you have to spend a lot of time fixing kinks inside the box that keep the wire from coming out. Cable on a roll tends to work much better. Cable on a roll inside a box is an awesome idea as long as the delivery man doesn't drop kick it on the way to your house causing the plastic parts inside to break. Always check those boxes upon delivery and return if they're broken.
2) the wood rings work awesome in new construction. something like these.
3) Spend a lot of time figuring out each run before hand because running one extra wire because you forgot it is a huge waste of time.
4) Label the wires however you want but I'd recommend putting an identifier in front of your numbering scheme on the wires. What I mean is "WS 1,2,3,etc.." for water sensor and "SC 1,2,3,etc.." for security contacts. This way you can easily group wires together at the termination point without having to lookup each number identifier. It'll make termination a little easier I think.
5) Obviously take a lot of photos and videos before drywall!
6) Electricians generally don't understand low voltage interference concerns so if you care about it at all then do your LV wire pulling AFTER the electricians so you can work around their stuff. I did mine during electrical so I kept having to go back and move my wires after I'd notice a 3" HV sub panel line running next to a huge group of CAT6 cables. That's not good!
7) If you have several coax cables going to one location like a plasma above the fireplace; i found it easier to purchase several different colors of coax so it's easy to identify which cable goes where.
That's it for now, i'll update as much as possible during my journey.
